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Lake Placid Summit Lacrosse Tournament Recap

Editor’s note: Remember Coach Ben Gaebel from the Rhino Lacrosse Academies? Of course you do! Well, Ben offered up his talents to cover the Lake Placid Summit Lacrosse Tournament for LAS while he was in beautiful upstate New York for the weekend. We even sent some GTG shirts and stickers for him to hand out to some lucky recipients! Check out Ben’s recap below!
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The 2011 Lake Placid Summit Lacrosse Tournament was another one for the ages. Annually, it is one of the greatest weekends of the year for many people. The tournament continues to grow year after year and continues to run smoother every time. The venue is great, as well as the staff. Now with a scholastic division, the tournament runs for a full week straight. I was able to stop up at the big tournament for a couple of days over the weekend, and it did not disappoint.

The teams seem to be getting better every year. Masters Division teams were highlighted by guys such as Ryan Powell, Jesse Hubbard and Kevin Leveille. The Burnt Orange (Syracuse alums) were able to take home the highly coveted Masters 1 Title after an early defeat against Motive Pure, which they battled back to avenge in the championship game.

Ryan Powell playing with Burnt Orange.

The Open Division also had some Orange flavor with the Burning Orange taking the crown over Raymour and Flannigan by a goal. However, I feel the game of the weekend was the Burning Orange and Big Red Steelheads game on Saturday. The Big Red Steelheads being made up of current and former Cornell players. They were led by Rob Pannell, Roy Lang and John Glynn. The sidelines for this game were packed and it seemed everyone in town was watching.

Burning Orange had quite the cast as well, with the ridiculous attack of Kenny Nims, Mike Leveille, Liam Banks and Mike Powell. Yup that’s right, Mike Powell was back and he hasn’t lost a step since his last time on the field. This high octane match-up proved to be a really good one with the Big Red jumping out to an early lead and the Burning Orange surging back with some big-time midfield play from JoJo Marasco, Tim Desko and Pat Perritt. JoJo put the orange up for good with just over two minutes to go on this goal below.

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=wIhUh00_HHQ” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wIhUh00_HHQ/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”Lake Placid Lacrosse Tournament: JoJo’s Game Winner”]

The Burning Orange overcame stellar goaltending by Rutgers grad Bill Olin in the championship game’s first half to edge Raymour and Flannigan by 1 and take home the Open 1 Title.

Rutgers grad Bill Olin.

As most of you may know, this weekend is about so much more than just winning the tourney title. It’s all about the people who are in the same little town at the same time. Big time coaches like Starsia (UVa), Desko (Cuse), Tillman (Maryland), Beville (Cortland) and Rogers (Cuse) are roaming the streets whether they are there to play or just enjoy a little getaway with friends and family.

This weekend certainly takes its toll on most of the participants – both on and off the field… and the poor BLA player seen below is a great example of “having a tough Saturday morning waiting for his game.” Friday nights can be tough in Placid!

Poor guy.

As I mentioned above, the Placid tourney is much more than just playing lacrosse and competing. It’s about the great game and growing the game. I was able to pass out some ‘Grow the Game’ t-shirts to some lucky guys around the venue who appreciated it very much as well as some stickers to some lucky kids and fans.

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=HQzrd0duFjs” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HQzrd0duFjs/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”Lake Placid Lacrosse Tournament: Interviews & Highlights”]

Overall, Placid is, in my opinion, the greatest weekend of the summer; LAX, good times, and great friends. I would recommend that anyone who really loves lacrosse check out this fine event sometime before you kick the can, as it is simply not something you want to miss!!!

LAS Placid team in 2012? We’ll need to get off that massive waiting list!